When you travel in an airplane, you can see all sorts of landscapes below — lakes, mountains, lush forests, deserts, cold and warm places. Likewise, during meditation, experiences of all kinds pass before your mind’s eye. At that time, the most important thing is to avoid any kind of clinging.

Don’t proudly think that these are “good” experiences and “Now I have realized the Great Perfection!” Neither should you be discouraged by “bad” periods of practice and feel like giving up meditation altogether, telling yourself, “I’ll never succeed.”

Let the mind remain in its completely natural, uncontrived state. Be like a newborn baby in its cradle. Even if surrounded by threatening armies wielding swords, the baby has no fear. In brief, there should be no modification of the natural state.

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book Pith Instructions: Selected Teachings and Poems

Read a random quote or see all quotes by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

Further quotes from the book Pith Instructions:

• The dawn of naked wisdom
• Eating tasty but poisonous plants
• Clinging to the body
• Guidance of a qualified teacher
• Emptiness and the law of cause and effect
• Under the influence of the three poison
• The body does not truly exist